Gramophone record sleeve



Oct. 30, 1962 N. J. GARROD ETA. 3,061,171

GRAMoPHoNE RECORD sLEEvE Filed Jan. 12, 1960 United States Patent Oiice3,6l1,171 Patented Oct. 30, 1962 3,661,171 GRAMOPHONE RECRD SLEEVENorman .lohn Garrod, 107 Westhall Road, Warlngham,

England, and Shaun Albert Frederick Sheridan Plunket, Mount Offham, WestMalling, Kent, England Filed Jan. 12, 1960, Ser. No. 1,914

" Claims priority, application Great Britain Jan. 14, 1959 4 Claims.(Cl. 229-68) and bottom edges and glued onto the back.

It is the custom on such sleeves to provides illustrated matter andfurthermore in order to enhance the appearance and thus promote salesthe sleeve is given a glossy finish normally by laminating with a filmor foil of cellulose -acetate or other sheet plastic. This is anexpensive operation and necessitates the back as Well as the front ofthe sleeve being laminated. Furthermore the strength of the sleeve isnot very great since the quality board used for the sleeve is relativelythin and becomes easily creased. This is undesirable particularly if aspine is provided on the fold. The spine in Va record sleeve consists ofa flattened portion on the fold so as to provide `depth to the .fold toaccommodate the thickness of the record, to take printing for the titleof the record, and

`to relieve pressure on the segment of record at that end lof thesleeve.

Furthermore it is common if not general practice to provide upon thefront of the sleeve a pictorial presentation which is related to therecording vand of course carries the title and upon the back of thesleeve to carry informative matter which `whilst relating generally tothe recording is not necessarily specifically directed to the particularrecording. With the known construction of ,sleeves it is necessary toprint the front and back simultaneously upon the blank Iwhich whenfolded is to form the sleeve. Thus once printed the material both on thefront and back commits the use of the sleeve to ,one particular record..which necessarily are printed prior to accurate knowledge 4as to thedemand for the particular recording exceed the Should the number ofprinted sleeves ultimate demand then the sleeves are wasted. On theother hand if the demand for a recording exceeds the number of sleevesprinted then the printing has once more to :be set up to print furthersleeves.

An object of the present invention is to provide a `record sleeve whichis cheaper to produce, which provides facilities for a stronger sleeveto be made giving greater protection to the record, and which enables asleeve to lbe made up having any desired front illustration andletterpress, and any desired back printing.

Broadly a record sleeve, according to the present invention, comprises afront portion having on its outer face pictorial or other matter, saidface comprising a separate sheet which is attached to the back of thesleeve by at least one flap glued over the join or seam.

t Conveniently the sleeve may be formed from a folded Vsheet of boardover the front Afold of which is secured on a separate specially printedsheet the front of the sleeve which front is secured to the folded sheetby aps preferably over three edges of the folded iboard to close theedges adjacent the fold and over the fold to form a spine leaving theother edge open to receive the record. The

back of the sleeve as formed may be printed upon disleeves.

`glued down to form the sleeve.

rectly or there may be printed upon a separate sheet informative matterrelating to the recording which can be secured onto the back eitherunderneath or over the flaps. The front sheet carrying the pictorialmatter may be varnished or laminated with a cellulose acetate or otherplastic film to give the high finish required on record The back on theother hand may be plainly printed and carry no varnish or laminatedplastic film.

The invention will now =be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIGURE l shows a front elevation of a record sleeve in accordance withthe present invention;

FIGURE 2 shows a rear elevation of the same sleeve;

FIGURE 3 is a section on the line III--III of FIG- URE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a section on the line IV-IV of FIG- URE 2;

FIGURE 5 is a section of a record sleeve on the saine section as IV-IVof FIGURE 2 showing a different form of construction; land FIGURE 6 is afragmentary section on an enlarged scale on the same section as III- IIIof FIGURE 2 of yet an alternative construction of record sleeve inaccordance with the present invention.

Referring to FIGURES l, 2 and 3 the record sleeve shown comprises a backsheet 1 of thick stiff cardboard which may, if desired, be white linedon the exterior face. This sheet is cut to the desired size of thesleeve. The front 2 comprises a relatively expensive cardboard which isprinted to carry a pictorial representation relating to the recording,the title and such other letterpress as is desired. This sheet islaminated with a cellulose acetate film or other plastic film to give ahigh gloss finish. The sheet is provided with flaps 3, 3, on its upperand lower edges which are creased during manufacture so that they foldover correctly on to the back '1. The third flap 4 is provided with aspine 5 which carries letterpress indicating the subject matter of therecording. The three flaps 3, 3 and 4 are folded over onto the back 1and This back 1 may have printed on it further lettcrpress descriptiveof the recording or of matter relating generally to the subjectAlternatively the back 1 may be of unlined cardboard or chipboard andthere may be pasted or glued onto the back 1 a sheet of paper alreadyprinted with the necessary informative matter. In this event the sleevewill `comprise three components namely a front 2, which is an expensivepictorial sheet, the back 1 which is a cheap thick board, and theprinted -matter which` is on ordinary thin paper which may be glued ontothe back either 4under -or over the flaps 3, 3 and 4.

FIGURE 5 shows an alternative form of construction.

In this Iconstruction the sleeve comprises a piece of pasteboard orshipboard 6 whichis creased down the middle or half cut down the middleso that when folded along this line each half forms respectively a frontand back to the sleeve. To this'base there is applied a printed front 2prepared in exactly the same Way as is described with respect to FIGURES1 to 3. The front 2 is secured to one side of `the folded pasteboardeither by gluing all 4over or by gluing over selected areas, for examplemarginal areas or at selected areas over the surface of the front, andthe flaps 3, 3, and 4 turned over and glued to the reverse side asdescribed with reference to FIG- URES 1 to 3. The double thickness ofboard 6 at the crease 7 forms suicient depth for the spine 5, the flap 4being folded so as to accommodate this double thickness of card. To thereverse side of the sleeve there may be applied printing directly on tothe chip-board in the event of this being a lined board, or a separatepaper sheet suitably printed may be secured as by gluing over the rearface.

In the detail shown in FIGURE 6 which shows a fragmentary section of aconstruction of sleeve similar to FIGURE 5, an additional strengtheningis given to the top and bottom edges of the sleeve Where the two edgesof the board 6 are covered by the flap 3, by means of a reinforcingstrip 8 which is applied over the join before the flap 3 is glued over.In this construction it is possible to employ a thinner quality paperfor the front since the aps 3, 3 and 4 are not wholly responsible formaintaining the top and bottom edges of the front and back together.

Where the printed front is applied to a pasteboard base it is preferrednot to glue the front over the whole surface of the pasteboard since theglossy finished formed by the cellulose acetate or other film is markedand warping occurs, and in some cases it is preferred to secure aseparate printed front to the pasteboard base solely by the three flapsand by a glued marginal portion extending along the edge of thepasteboard adjacent the opening of the sleeve.

By assembling a record sleeve in accordance with the present inventionan advantage is gained peculiar to the gramophone record industry sinceit is possible to carry what might be termed blank sleeves in largestock with only the general informative printing on the back and thesemay remain in stock to have the front applied at any subsequent time asand when desired. This enables a stock of blank sleeves to be carriedand any one of a number of fronts to be applied as the demand requires.It is not necessary to estimate the future demand of any particularrecording and to build up a stock of suitable sleeves beforehand as wasnecessary with the known type of sleeves.

When the sleeve is formed using a folded chipboard as a base a preferredsequence of operations in the manufacture of the sleeve is as follows:

(l) The separate fronts are printed, laminated or varnished and cut withflaps which are then creased toprovide the correct fold lines;

(2) Either white lined chipboard is printed to provide the informativematter which will constitute the back of the sleeve or the back paper tobe glued thereon is printed.

(3) The chipboard is half cut and/or creased.

(4) The back paper if provided is glued onto the half of the foldedchipboard that constitutes `the back.

(5) The front printed card is attached to the chipboard and the flapsfolded over the adjacent edges of the folded chipboard and glued down.

(6) The open edge forming the opening to the sleeve is trimmed.

Whilst in the embodiments described the front and back of the sleeve areformed from one piece of pasteboard half cut down the fold and foldedover the sleeve may if desired be made from two separate pieces ofpasteboard or the like and conveniently an insert may be placed betweenthese boards along the edge destined to be the spine so as to give athickness at that end. The other edges can be joined as described aboveand the front applied and glued to the base sleeve along the flaps andthe front edge only or if desired over the whole or selected areas ofits remaining surface.

The front may in addition to the three aps serving to close the seamscarry a fourth flap which is not glued but which serves to tuck into theopening over the record to retain the record in the sleeve and also toact as a dust ap. This is a further advantage of providing a separatefront since it can be cut with this separate flap whereas with the oldtype of sleeve this was not economic so to cut it.

If desired spines may be provided or built in on the remaining edges ofthe sleeve to give a depth to the sleeve on all its edges and so toprovide greater protection to the record. Furthermore one or more of theflaps can be cut to shape for example by cutting out segments at theirmid portions to prevent undue pressure being placed upon the record whenstacked in a pile of similar sleeves.

Whilst the invention has been described with particular reference torecord sleeves manufactured from cardboard and paper it will be realisedthat other sheet material may be employed. For example the presentinvention allows for a back portion or under front portion or both to bemanufactured from metal, plastic or other material and to have appliedthereto a printed front and back.

Furthermore whilst it is normally preferred to fold the chipboard sothat the fold forms the edge opposite the opening to the sleeve thisneed not be so and the fold may form an edge adjacent the opening to thesleeve.

What we claim is:

1. A gramophone record sleeve comprising a rectangular envelope closedalong two sides and one end thereof and having the other end openadapted for the insertion of a record disc into the envelope, the saidenvelope including a back sheet of relatively stiff board, a relativelythin front sheet having a high gloss finish and carrying printed andpictorial matter, flaps on opposed side edges of said front sheet alsohaving a high gloss finish and engaging over corresponding side edges ofthe back sheet and adhered to the rear face thereof to close the saidtwo sides of the envelope, and a flap on one end edge of the said frontsheet also having a high gloss finish and engaging over thecorresponding end edge of the back sheet and adhered to the rear facethereof to close said one end of the envelope, the said end flapproviding a spine at said one end of the envelope and carrying printedmatter adapted to relate to the record disc for which the sleeve is tobe used.

2. A gramophone record sleeve comprising a rectangular envelope closedalong two sides and one end thereof and having the other end openadapted for the insertion of a record disc into the envelope, the saidenvelope including a sheet of stiff material folded upon itself toprovide front and back sheets joined together along the fold of thematerial to provide said closed end of the envelope, an additionalrelatively thin front sheet having a high gloss finish and carryingprinted and pictorial matter and adhered to the front sheet of stiffmaterial, flaps on opposed side edges of the additional front sheet alsohaving a high gloss finish and engaging over corresponding side edges ofthe front and back sheets and adhered to the rear face of the back sheetto close the said two sides of the envelope, a flap on one end edge ofsaid additional front sheet also having a high gloss finish and engagingover the said fold and adhered to the rear face of the back sheet, thesaid end flap providing a spine at said one end of the envelope andcarrying printed matter adapted to relate to the record disc for whichthe sleeve is to be used.

3. A gramophone record sleeve as claimed in claim 2 and includingreinforcing strips engaging over said side edges of the front and backsheets underneath the said side flaps of the additional front sheet andadhered to the front and the back sheets respectively.

4. A gramophone record sleeve comprising a rectangular envelope closedalong two sides and one end thereof and having the other end openadapted for the insertion of a record disc into the envelope, the saidenvelope including a front and a back sheet of stiff material, anadditional relatively thin front sheet having a high gloss finish andcarrying printed and pictorial matter and adhered to the front sheet ofstiff material, flaps on opposed side edges of the additional frontsheet engaging over corresponding side edges of the front and backsheets and adhered to on one end edge of the additional front sheetengaging 5 over said one end edge of the front and back sheets and thespacing strip interposed therebetween, and adhered to the rear face `ofthe back sheet to close said one end of the envelope, and carryingprinted matter adapted to relate to the record disc for which the sleeveis to be used.

References Cited in the ie of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS BeroldNov. 9,

Hatton July 7,

Horwin Dec. 6,

Kryeske Mar. 24,

Lederhose Apr. 5,

FOREIGN PATENTS France Mar. 31,

